joined below to. the gateway who took the brunt imperial truly to tell us that. you can to listen to the socialist see don't need to go and. read this and the colonel was so chilled as a treat. the latest news in the week's top stories here on r t what should have been in memory. thousands riot in moscow when state. exhibit polls close of course all of the free elections and yes the democratic party opposed both headed by the current prime minister as the lead but observers say most of the serbian minority decided to boycott the ballot. in the minority so. they asked me to. see to build a bridge telling me how this debate is just a few moments. of winter of discontent in europe rises up in protest over twitching

fees and financial hardship. line payment giants cut off donations to wiki leaks but continue expected payments from the radical groups including the ku klux but. it's six am in moscow i match reza good to be with you as we bring you today's top stories and a look back at the week's news here on r t football fans in moscow and st petersburg turned a march to commemorate a spartak moscow supporter into a riot on saturday russia's interior minister says nationalists incited the violence artie's catarina as are of the reports. anger and mismanagement thousands of football fans took to the streets of the russian capital with a smoke filled bryant. transforming quiet central moscow as fires in bottles flew

overhead riot police detained instigators of the clashes at what started out as a peaceful commemorative rally to know that. some people have reacted very violently the death of the spartak moscow. i do believe that some of their dissatisfaction is understandable but it is unacceptable when we have aggression with firecrackers that those into flames and ordinary people sort of police have already arrested those responsible for the murder of your spirit and will arrest others everyone is equal before the law the firing questioning was shot dead last week during a mass brawl most of those gathered in the city's minute square simply wanted to pay their respects and demand a full investigation into the death of one of their own but take into account the fact that the suspect in this homicide is from the north caucasus and the story it's an ugly nationalist twist according to officials members of the country's

various nationalist movements and not for profit and instigated the violence. was. fine but by the way it was we saw that radical protestors joins those spartak fans honoring the dead men and inside of mass protests and fighting the police must act tough but within the law and they did everything they had to act and as the situation unfolded. the clashes didn't stop with just the capital either petersburg rally in memory of city that quickly turned into a fight between protesters and riot police with many injured and over fifty detained so is this nationalist violence for violence sake or is there have been agenda. of the nationalist far right is working very hard to mobilize the book into a different nationalist the new nazi group. doing a lot of propaganda. with

a lot of success the fans who are there are not exactly blameless themselves just a few days ago spar tech supporters disrupted their team's match in slovakia a new way for cup management is already considering serious punishment for the team . in the next match a scandal held no audience in the europa league and on thursday i think next day after the match the head coach of sport that their carbon so that it's not accepted found to behave like that sans claimed they want justice for a friend who had been killed but violence is not the answer saturday's clashes prove them both the story and the aggression are not really about football to the instigators however it's all fair game tensions are on the rise tell you the speed of even the little russian ball doing nothing to offer tempers police managed to restore order to the streets of the capital and st petersburg but many are still

afraid this is the be end of violence. captured as our of our team boss. exit polls suggest that prime minister hoshyar attaching the democratic party of kosovo is leading in the region's first parliamentary elections but as artie's hours had reports many from the serbian minority decided to boycott the ballot. well polls have now closed in these historic elections and cost will be breathing a sigh of relief that for the most part the vote seeing a pall spike incident free that were force of a few very minor disturbances in the north and serbian enclaves of course this is still a region deeply divided along ethnic lines no to be between the majority albanian community here they make up some ninety percent of the population on the march a smaller minority serbian community here the expectation is that some fifty percent of the electorate would have voted in today's elections but the votes majority of them will have been albanians serbs have been divided on the issue many

want to vote to make a change but they don't necessarily want to engage in the cause of an electoral system they say they see daily persecution here high unemployment they're not free to travel around the territory they suffer a very poor standard of living and of course there was the cool from belgrade to boycott these elections are soft the language the new used in previous elections of course ethnic divisions and the only problem facing cost of employment is a romp it here some reports put it up between forty and fifty percent of the economy here is one of europe's weakest but many say that institutional corruption is the biggest problem here and these are all if you that have been identified in the main policies a manifesto the expectation is that the largest party will take the majority of votes here that is a prime minister how touchy is democratic party of kosovo the p.t.k.

followed by its former coalition a posse the democratic league of kosovo l.t. k. then there is traditionally the third party he is the alliance of the future of course of a the a a k but all of those a major policies cover referred to these problems here in the country within the framework of achieving what they perceive to be the ultimate goal. e.u. and nato membership but as i mentioned many here consider corruption to be the biggest problem facing costco in recent polls showing the cost of the have a self it's a real it's a climb in their faith in public institutions here rating from the judiciary to the parliament and they can do that this itself that was put forward for these elections were just helps says a number of key candidates from across the main posties are currently under investigation for a variety of crimes ranging from abuse of office to corruption and most worryingly of all the leader role of the a k how to deny is currently in the hague awaiting

retrial for war crimes but what does all mean is that said this has allowed some new of policies to emerge on the scene to make some quite serious inroads in these elections most notably. meaning self-determination and fed it meaning new spirit both these policies expected to take some votes today and i'm like the bigger traditional policies they've stayed away from talk of nato an e.u. membership and having said preferred to focus on the bread and butter issues affecting people's everyday lives here. political expert michigan says kosovo's ethnic serbs are being treated as second class citizens. you have to bear in mind that about two thirds of. we used to living costs of all prior to need to the bomb being themselves in some eleven years ago are no longer in kosovo and they have been effectively ethnically cleansed and no provision whatsoever has been made

for them to participate either in these or any previous elections and this is of course a major problem for the remaining. population in kosovo because participation in the electoral process can be easily interpreted as an agreement to the conditions that are prevailing in kosovo you know the words legitimizing that process with which the very unhappy with so i expect there will be a very low turnout amongst us because the whole issue of and many of them see kosovo as a failed state and that is certainly not going to encourage them to come out and participate in the elections analysis from michigan releve as your balkans political expert weighing in on kosovo's election. on the way when war is out of sight it's out of mind americans struggle to keep up with their soul with where the soldiers are fighting we'll tell you why sure. but first u.k.

authorities have released the pictures of fourteen people wanted for instigating violence during the tuition fee protests in london a total of one hundred seventy five people were arrested during the four demonstrations that paralyzed the capital and left dozens injured riots erupted after westminster approved a three fold hike in university tuition protesters vandalized government property and a car carrying prince charles and his wife camilla came under attack from protesters labor m.p. jeremy corbyn says the fees will impact the less privileged families. what we see is the end of access to higher education for people of average and below average incomes it's going to be the preserve of the wealthier in the future the trend will be will have a less well educated less skilled less qualified population i see education as an investment for the future we're investing in young people reinvesting in skills we're investing in knowledge we're investing in our future that where is the

economic growth of the future where the advantages of to more and where the right is in the artists and musicians of tomorrow this is causing at the core of society those that created this economic mess that we're in are the ones who should pay for it's a transaction tax a wealth tax a tax on the very wealthiest people in our society would help to close the gap there is no need to basically hit the poorest people in our society in order to pay off this debt in march in time we need a more sensible more rational more humane approach to the whole issue we're not getting that from the government at the moment that's why the students are on the streets that's why the sound in your capacious and crucially that's why so many others trade unions and people work in the public sector and people are worried about their services are also joining the students in the demonstration commentary from british. opposition labor party m.p. jeremy corbin further west ireland's minimum when minimum wage is being cut but so are the salaries of the country's leaders to try soaking up some of the anger over

the latest set of deficit slashing measures people there faced the harshest welfare reductions in the country's history after its banking system all but collapsed the pain's not helped by seeing bankers itching to secure massive bonuses once again which is why the european bank regulators will impose strict limits on rewards as the eurozone battles to stop the euro disintegrating it's hoped a second series of tough bank tests in february will ease the pressure e.u. leaders are set to get back to the table to get a firmer grip on the continent wide debt crisis next week but richard boyd barrett from the people before profit alliance says ordinary workers are being made to pay for the mistakes of the rich and powerful europe clearly has a big part to play particularly in its you know pursues of neo liberal policies of deregulation of lowering taxes on wealth of privatization all of those have certainly contributed very serious these the current situation but it's important to stress that our own government our own rulers have been in very much into xian

stick champions of those same policies and indeed many irish senior irish political figures have ended open senior positions within the european union because they are of a mind with that body in pursuing these failed policies that have done so much damage to this country and to the european economy if the european commission and european central bank want to save the euro then they should pay for it on the phone told us on the speculators who calls the crisis they should play to save the euro not poor . poor people i'm working people who have no responsibility no hand our part in creating this crisis in the first place and frankly i don't care one way or another whether the euro survives but i care about as is that there's fairness for ordinary people that they aren't expected to so for hardship and poverty as a result of the mistakes of politicians bankers there. financial speculators remember you can find more on this in everything we cover a click away at our team including this grasping for peace.

human rights homemade bomb could be consumed with find out about the middle eastern musicians who are reinventing the protests so what's. it going that extra mile for the adrenaline rush to see a russian base jumper take on and. all that and more put away at our team dot com. t.v. . the founder of the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks says the pentagon is planning his prosecution in a documentary aired in sweden giuliana sohn says he's disappointed with how swedish justice has been abused the thirty nine year old is in british custody after stockholm issued an arrest warrant in connection with the rape allegations that assad firmly denies earlier in the week his supporters of his website that

published hundreds of thousands of classified u.s. wires staged a cyber war on financial giants master card visa and pay pal all came under attack when they stopped taking donations from wiki leaks meanwhile large he's got a shaky on discover that the firms are still happily accepting payments for hate groups. the u.s. government has presented no charges against julian a song but that hasn't stopped government officials from reportedly putting pressure at the highest level to cut off we kill leaks money supply a senior executive of america's money transfer giant pay pal set the state department had written to the company claiming the online whistleblower was involved in illegal activities so pay pal along with massive card and be so are no longer accepting cash donations for the controversial website but it's the threat of this has some impact on national security and when you say that in the united states everybody. you know what's their patents and they do what they're told.

and so i think that it's a misconception in some cases that people think that the u.s. is purely a money driven society it's not the government has certain parag it is particularly over national security no court ruling no legal procedures were needed to crackdown on the media organization later pay-pal backtracked on its statement it had acted upon the government's request master card and visa were most of a sip on the subject but the general explanation they gave for not accepting donation payments for we kill it says that the site quoting courage is. moats facilitates or instruct others to engage in illegal activity but on the other hand neither master card more said i have any problems processing donations for say nuku clark's clan racist movement and his was the history of extreme violence with the goals of racial segregation and white supremacy and yet it takes seconds to make

a donation to the klan a number of senators including the chairman of the homeland security committee joe lieberman were quick to pat those companies on the back for cutting off cash to weaken leaks but americans cracked down on the organization that appears to be fighting for transparency and freedom of speech leaves many asking what happens to american values of freedom of expression these are very difficult things for us to face as americans this is not what we believe in a country we believe it's a country that respects the markers you lot are going to be shown where the accuracy is not used but u.s. politicians do not shy away from flashing their democratic values when rooting for a chinese fighter for freedoms he won the nobel peace prize so there you see the goddess now the son of weston of the so-called international community. is targeted for having released information knowing what's what you should be doing and you

have got a case where the same people will be pushing for a candidate which is a dissident within the people's republic of china so they are playing double standards with that regard some even suggest why not give the prize to julian a sarge this year is freedom of speech will surely. be a rational explanation for giving it to wiki leaks others can't help asking if u.s. officials are sold down and we kill leaks why are they after the new york times in the same way or the british newspaper the go. already in our german is there speak it those are the we kill ex-partners papers one other incredible thing about the prosecution is that some people are falsely reporting that wiki leaks has dumped two hundred fifty thousand documents that's not true at all they only were putting stuff up on their web page when either the new york times or der spiegel. or the

guardian or by us were putting up. so what could possibly be the legal rationale for going after we can leaks and not going after the new york times there are a lot of unanswered questions about weiqi leaks one thing is on the surface the us shows it can interpret democratic values however it wants depending on its gains ganesh check on r.t.e. washington d.c. among some of the most recent waking leaks was a secret nato agreement to launch a u.s. led defense of the baltic states against russia russian officials believe the leaks contradict the warming of relations declared last month's nato summit in lisbon at the same time both sides per plane destitute partnership and talked of joint european missile defense shield in russia's foreign minister called on nato to comment on the revelations saying they put a question mark over the alliance's intentions. so this it isn't really a belief suggest planning of military action to repel for example a russian attack on the baltic states we paid special attention to that it means on

one hand nato was talking with us about partnership and on the other who's taking decisions to protect itself against us there is a question about when nato be seen see it when it's openly talking with us about partnership when it secretly deciding amongst itself some quite different things. two militants in a suspected accomplice have been killed by police in russia's southern republic of dagestan one policeman was wounded during the gunfight the militants barricaded themselves in a house in which special forces stormed after negotiations failed authorities say one of those killed was the head of the local tearing who was on the most wanted list believed to have taken part in at least one major attack in two thousand and nine that left four policemen and seven women dead authorities are cracking down on militant groups in russia's south but the region remains volatile prosecutors say the number of terror attacks there has doubled this year. turning now to some other stories making headlines across the globe swedish police have launched

a terror investigation into saturday's twin bombings and stockholm the first attack saw a car explode in a busy area packed with christmas shoppers although there were only a handful of injuries one man was killed in the second blast he was thought to have been carrying explosives a warning given prior to the bombings to announce sweden's military presence in afghanistan and the swedish authors controversial cartoons of the prophet muhammad . nato says six u.s. troops have been killed by a suicide car bomber in southern afghanistan kandahar province insurgents targeted an army checkpoint in the zari district the alliance has been stepping up the fighting in the south of the country in recent weeks it's a particularly hostile region with taliban strongholds near the pakistani border. a suicide bomber blew up his car outside government offices in the iraqi city of ramadi killing up to seventeen many were it more were injured including children police reportedly found a second bomb in

a nearby parking lot that was safely detonated the attack comes as the country's prime minister attempts to form a new cabinet to try ending months of political impasse. and a powerful snowstorm as had been u.s. midwest closing major highways and canceling more than one thousand flights at least two people died as a result of severe weather and snow also led to the. stadium in minnesota collapsing forecasters say the blizzard is now heading towards the area to its surrounding areas including east towards chicago. tension remains high in the korean peninsula after seoul washington in tokyo hold negotiations excluding pyongyang earlier this week both japan and south korea also carried out a joint military drills with the u.s. in the area the exercises prompted pyongyang to accuse seoul of provocation bowing to turn the islands near the border with and worked into military fortresses the situation remains tense after the two neighbors exchanged fire late last month the

attack killed two south korean marines and two civilians american anti-war campaigner sarah flounders believes the u.s. is it would really be working on the to push the peninsula over the edge. definitely a provocation and intended provocation as are the past military maneuvers both last july and again in november the united states government may really be orchestrating a confrontation we should never forget the gulf of tonkin incident as it was called that led to the vietnam war the united states is no longer in the position it was sixty years ago when it was the great power in the region it is today an empire in serious decline and decay and attempting to do too military many aircraft carriers what it no longer has a productive capacity to do it really is an attempt to get out of the economic crisis globally with more military expenditures and more military confrontations

and it's a great danger for the people of the whole globe but especially the people of the region a poll of americans shows that concern for the country's wars in iraq and afghanistan is headed a new low many were stumped when asked basic questions about the conflicts but maybe it's not entirely their fault as artie's lauren lyster explains. the western media is putting celebrity gossip ahead of what's really important. an average day on the streets of the big apple an urban metropolis of lights cameras and action these stars and stripes preside over it all. they're the same one seen here that come marching somberly home from us wars overseas though they seem a world away so too do the wars in afghanistan and iraq for the american people who know only this flag that they give in is their right. and the door opens the going . confusion of bounds over who the u.s.

is fighting and where with no sense of the losses how many u.s. troops u.s. soldiers would you say have been killed in a war in afghanistan oh far too many obviously and it's and it's terrible and i i hope it can be resolved i hope that how many would you say. gosh more than forty four hundred u.s. troops have been killed in iraq more than thirteen hundred in afghanistan. and along with lives those missions together have cost the american taxpayer a lot of cash i would say probably about twenty billion. the wars together have cost more than one trillion dollars and counting money spent since the u.s. invaded iraq back in two thousand and three and afghanistan when. one question because unlike the afghanistan i was two years the u.s. has been there since two thousand one hundred years the responses we've gotten here

in the heart of new york city's times square are that surprising when you look at a recent poll it's on public concern with the wars is very low just seven percent of americans consider the wars in iraq and afghanistan to be the biggest problems facing the united states now why this is the case is up for debate. some point to the role of the us mainstream media which focuses more attention on sensational news even entertainment headlines than on coverage of the war or when it's hard to dramatize our successes and you know our heroic accomplishments you know people tend to look the other way it's something that's sort of more engrossing if you will preface a less important the news and say in rehab has been cut short focuses more on something like this or court ordered rehab coverage of the rehab stints of a young hollywood actress morning network shows they definitely like to focus on the fluff and in turn people searching to come up with answers to questions about

the wars their country is fighting have no trouble answering this lindsay lowen issues still in rehab. no i think she's out there she's going to be committed we have these are headlines they can recite even if they wish they couldn't who cares no were more worried about the troops out there but for now the stork reality beneath these stars and stripes is lost in the urban chaos the frivolous media mayhem beneath these ones a world removed and far away from the consequences of u.s. foreign policy on an average day any given day on the streets of the big apple lauren lyster r.t. new york. stay with us here on our t.v. i'll be back after this short break with the headlines.

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